Survey muna! 16 November 2008
Posted by Yaelski in Usual Ramblings.Tags: survey
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Blog filler na naman. 
Survey #1
1. Can you fill this out without lying?
I’ll try.
2. What’s the last thing you put in your mouth?
Fries from McDonald’s.
3. Have you ever kissed anyone named Kaitlyn?
No.
4. Where was your default picture taken?
At some website.
5. Last person you rode in a car with under the age of 21?
My younger sister.
6. Can you play Guitar Hero?
I wish.
7. Last time you walked further than a block?
Last week, at MOA. The main mall alone is more than a block.
8. Name someone that made you laugh today?
Wanda Sykes. “The Bible said Adam and Eve, it doesn’t say Adam and Mary J. Blige!”
9. When was the last time you saw number 6 on your top friends?
I don’t have to rank them, but I did see one last Thursday.
10. If you could move somewhere else, would you?
Yes. Very much. And hopefully, very soon.
11. Ever been kissed under fireworks?
No.
12. Which of your friends lives closest to you?
Dannize, in Tanza.
13. Do you believe exes can be friends?
Yes
14. Do you prefer to call or text?
Text. I have a phobia with calling.
15. How do you feel about Diet Dr Pepper?
Never tried it.
16. When was the last time you cried really hard?
Last month, while moving houses. Napikon ako ng husto eh.
17. Where are you at right now?
At home.
18. What bed did you sleep in last night?
Mine.
19. What was the last thing someone bought for you?
The fries I just ate.
20. When is your birthday?
July.
21. Who took your profile pictures?
I dunno.
23. Was yesterday better than today?
Somehow, because of the nap.
24. Can you live a day without TV?
Yes. As long as I know there’s no tennis and that I have my computer or Zen.
25. What are you listening to?
The TV.
26. Are you mad about anything?
Yes. Definitely yes.
27. Do you think relationships are ever really worth it?
Maybe.
28. When was the last time you were extremely disappointed?
…A few days ago.
29. Where do you wish you were right now?
Tagaytay. The mall. At the DLSU library.
30. Are you a bad influence?
No. I don’t think I even have an influence.
31. Are you more of an individual or an outgoing person?
Individual.
32. What items can you not go without during the day?
Food. Water. Something to read.
33. Would you share a drink with a stranger?
No.
34. How do you feel about your life right now?
Troubled.
35. Do you hate anyone?
Yes
36. If we were to look in your phone inbox, what would we find?
Forwarded quotes. Work-related messages. Kamustahan.
37. Anyone upset you lately?
Yes.
38. Last person you talked to on the phone?
The clerk taking down our orders at McDonald’s.
39. Can you easily tell if someone is fake?
Yes.
Survey #2
1. The way to win your heart?
Be really nice, clean, and decent.
2. What did you do last night?
Take a long nap, then watch tennis.
3. Do you have the same name as one of your relatives?
No. Thankfully.
4. Are you looking for a boyfriend/girlfriend?
Hmm…
5. One song that is meaningful to you?
Little Bird by Annie Lennox.
6. Do you twirl or scoop your spaghetti?
Yes I do!
7. Do you drink milk straight from the carton?
No. Come to think of it, I don’t drink milk at all.
8. How long is your hair?
Nearly halfway down my back. Must get a haircut soon.
9. Do you like Batman?
Batman Returns, yes.
10. Who was the last person who told you they loved you?
Can’t remember.
11. Addicted to anything?
Junk food. Pizza. I Can Has Cheezburger? I Has a Hotdog.
12. What were you last listening to in the car?
We don’t have a car
13. Do you like anyone now?
Yes. But just a crush.
14. When was the last time you sang out loud?
Last week.
15. What did you have for breakfast?
Gardenia bread and Milo.
16. Is your birthday on a holiday?
No, sadly.
17. What instant messaging service do you use?
Yahoo! Messenger.
18. Can you cook?
…Not really. I can fry things, but I only do that when I really have to. I used to help my folks bake, but we no longer have an oven.
19. Did you have a nap today?
No, because we had quite a busy day.
20. What do you wear more, jeans or sweats?
Jeans, definitely.
21. When is your birthday?
July
22. Do you swear a lot?
There are days.
23. Where did you get the shirt you’re wearing?
Kuya Pat’s Christmas gift two years ago.
24. Do you have any regrets?
Yes. A lot.
25. What’s the first thing you notice of the opposite sex?
Face.
26. What was your first alcoholic drink?
Something called El Capitan. It’s a mix of lemon juice, calamansi juice (which I substituted for dayap), Tanduay, then topped with Pepsi and ice.
27. Do you want something you can’t have?
Solitude. A space of my own.
28. What color are your favorite shoes?
Had these ice-blue flats which I loved and wore to work nearly everyday.
29. Who would you like to see right now?
No one in particular.
30. Are you a social or an anti-social person?
Anti-social.
31. Have the cops ever come by your house?
Yes, but that’s because they’re my dad’s friends and they’re here for inuman.
32. Ever been in love?
Yes, I believed that.
33. Who was the first person to really break your heart?
34. Do you trust people?
Not easily.
35. Who was the first person you talked to today?
Dad.
36. Who was the first person to text you today?
No one. My phone can go on for days without doing anything.
37. What was the first thing you did this morning?
Eat breakfast.
38. Looking forward to something this weekend?
Another trip to the library. Finally getting to read my notes to prepare for the compre.
The 10 Commandments of Commuting 28 October 2008
Posted by Yaelski in Usual Ramblings.Tags: commandments, commuting
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Got this from my friend Tonio’s Multiply post. Read, memorize, and share with fellow commuters.
10. Thou shalt not question, provoke, nor berate thy driver.
Commentary by Tonio: Jeep, FX, cab, or trikes, never lose your cool on the driver… A pissed off driver is almost the same as a pissed off cook/chef/waiter. The latter can do anything to your food; the former, do anything to you on the road. (ie. a driver once told me he pretended his cab was sira and made the passenger push the car while under the Makati tunnel. After a few meters, the driver gave up, returned the 500 cab fare and made the passenger walk out the tunnel, high heels and all. Nearing the end of the tunnel, same taxi cab came roaring off smiling at ms. passenger. It turns out, earlier during ‘kontratahan’, ms. passenger said, “O ayan, saksak mo sa baga mo”, throwing 500 peso bills for the driver to pick up. Aw, sensitive driver is indeed a sweet lover.)
My commentary: If you’re complaining about the sudden fare increase, then take it up with the LTO and the LTFRB, not with the driver. Pareho lang kayong talunan sa pagtataas ng pamasahe, so be more understanding. If you don’t want to pay the fare, fine. Who’s going to be late, anyway?
9. Thou shalt not take too much space (open legs for men, sit diagonally for women) when the jeep/FX is full and butt-room is scarce.
We all know space is limited, so don’t try to insult other people by taking up too much space. Your big hips or stomach aren’t reason enough. To put it crudely, “pareho lang tayong nagbayad.” Unless you actually paid for two persons on that ride.
8. Thou shalt make sure that you reach out for your co-commuter’s fare and give it to the driver.
A little courtesy wouldn’t hurt right? Pay it forward! Not to mention that it’s just going to waste a lot more time waiting for someone to actually pass someone else’s fare when you can help. And, don’t forget to say THANK YOU.
7. Thou shalt not stop the closing doors of the MRT and the LRT.
I nearly lost my right hand once at the MRT Boni Station. The train that came was almost full, but I still thought I could still squeeze in. In slow-mo memory, I had reached out my hand to make my way in until I realized the buzzer was already sounding madly and that the doors were just several inches away from cutting my hand. Obviously, it’s not worth risking life and limb to get a train ride, especially when the next train will come just a few minutes later.
6. Thou shalt not speak about, most especially complain at how crowded the MRT or LRT is.
You already know the train was full crowded when you got in, so why are you still complaining? Hello, free will?! If you’re too beautiful to take the crowded train, here’s Tonio’s advice: “Get a cab if you don’t want an MRT group hug.”
5. Thou shalt not walk in twos or threes on a 2-way lane.
Commentary from Tonio: Feel the wrath of my shoulder banging against yours. I don’t care… you were on my way. It’s October now, Santracuzan is over. Don’t walk the lane like you’re the Reyna Elena, with your Constantino (complete with karo holders). Be a little more considerate.
4. Thou shalt be mindful of other commuters walking with you, especially behind you.
Yes, you like taking Zen moments every where you can, pero ‘day, nagmamadali ang mundo na nasa likuran mo. Ayaw nilang ma-late.
3. Thou shalt not delay the closing of elevator doors.
Tonio’s story (this was written in July): OK. The reason for this whole blog entry: Earlier today, I’m late (as usual) I’m taking the second shift, I queued and rode the elevator going up. As usual, it was hot like hell in our building lobby. Being lunch time, people do round trips (personally i think round trips are forgivable). It was crowded until the tenth floor (15th ang stop ko). On the tenth, a group of people (like 5 of them) wanted to step in… but won’t fit… they went on for like a full 30 seconds with the whole of the elevator just staring at them. At that moment, I burst out and said “Tumigil na mag-pacute.” I felt slightly embarrassed myself for such conduct, but no one else would react. They give up. Elevator door closes, and I told my officemate “T@ngin@ late nako eh”….and my 30 seconds are wasted just like that (naks).
Again, being with your friends does not give you the right to be completely oblivious of other people surrounding you.
2. Thou shalt fill the space of the elevator to accommodate maximum number of passengers.
Similar to the jeep and train, space is scarce, so do your bit of protecting world peace: give way to incoming passengers. Stand up straight; the elevator isn’t a hangout where you can slouch down. Buy your own elevator if you don’t want to be squeezed out.
1. Thou shalt abide by the escalator code of staying on the right side when not in a hurry, leaving the left side free for those who are.
Not just on escalators, but on hallways, corridors, and every walk way where people pass by. Not everyone likes to play patintero with you.
Yes, another one of those online quizzes… 27 October 2008
Posted by Yaelski in Usual Ramblings.Tags: wala lang
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Only this time, the results hit it quite right.
You might’ve been a scribe in Ancient Egypt.
If you’ve always wondered what people will remember about you in the future, it might actually be a hint about your past. Maybe you were an Egyptian scribe, a well-educated writer responsible for keeping track of every important occurrence. Your opinion matters, because in the future, YOUR hieroglyphic symbols (or your blog posts) might teach people about what life was like. If spelling and grammar mistakes get on your nerves, it’s probably because in Ancient Egypt, they didn’t have a backspace key — once you wrote something, it was carved in stone.
Find out who you were here.
Kate-katera Moment No. 349: Powerbooks wasn’t arranging their shelves 9 October 2008
Posted by Yaelski in Rants and Raves.Tags: Powerbooks
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So there I was at Powerbooks Greenbelt this afternoon browsing through the Philippine Publications shelves for something that I can add to my reading list in preparation for the compre. My attention was suddenly diverted to a copy of the book The Lies that Build a Marriage by Suchen Christine Lim. I felt pleased to know that this book is now locally available; I had attended Ms. Lim’s reading last year in school, and I loved this book. Unfortunately, I realized Powerbooks had placed this book in its Filipiniana section.
The kate-katera in me switched on. I took a comment card, wrote down that Ms. Lim is a Singaporean author, and that this book was published in Singapore. It is nowhere near being a Philippine publication. Perhaps the purchasing officer, or the book specialist, wasn’t reading covers thoroughly?
I didn’t bite the CA’s head off though, there was no need. I just tried to explain to him briefly what I had written down in the comment card.
Powerbooks naman, iilan na nga lang ang mga Asian authors na nasa shelves niyo, sa maling section niyo pa ilalagay!
********************
There. I just had to get it off my chest.
But I do tell you, everyone, to get that book. The stories in this collection are painful, but wonderful. During the reading at school Ms. Lim said of her work, “I write about the Singapore that is not written in the brochures of the Singapore tourism board.” If you want to look at Singapore beyond its sleek, high-tech facade, then this is the book to read. 
“Nobel judge: U.S. too ignorant to compete” 6 October 2008
Posted by Yaelski in Usual Ramblings.Tags: books, literature, Nobel Prize
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STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Bad news for American writers hoping for a Nobel Prize next week: the top member of the award jury believes the United States is too insular and ignorant to compete with Europe when it comes to great writing.
Counters the head of the U.S. National Book Foundation: “Put him in touch with me, and I’ll send him a reading list.”
[...] Speaking generally about American literature, however, he said U.S. writers are “too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture,” dragging down the quality of their work.
“The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don’t translate enough and don’t really participate in the big dialogue of literature,” Engdahl said. “That ignorance is restraining.”
His comments were met with fierce reactions from literary officials across the Atlantic.
“You would think that the permanent secretary of an academy that pretends to wisdom but has historically overlooked Proust, Joyce, and Nabokov, to name just a few non-Nobelists, would spare us the categorical lectures,” said David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker.
“And if he looked harder at the American scene that he dwells on, he would see the vitality in the generation of Roth, Updike, and DeLillo, as well as in many younger writers, some of them sons and daughters of immigrants writing in their adopted English. None of these poor souls, old or young, seem ravaged by the horrors of Coca-Cola.”
Harold Augenbraum, executive director of the foundation which administers the National Book Awards, said he wanted to send Engdahl a reading list of U.S. literature.
“Such a comment makes me think that Mr. Engdahl has read little of American literature outside the mainstream and has a very narrow view of what constitutes literature in this age,” he said.
“In the first place, one way the United States has embraced the concept of world culture is through immigration. Each generation, beginning in the late 19th century, has recreated the idea of American literature.”
He added that this is something the English and French are discovering as immigrant groups begin to take their place in those traditions.
In this kind of debate, which side will Filipino readers and Filipino bookstores take?
